This invention relates in general to the installation of roof gutters and more particularly to a tool for driving nails to secure such roof gutters.
The typical roof gutter consists of nothing more than a narrow strip of sheet metal rolled into a trough and reinforcing brackets fitted between the front and rear walls of the trough. Of course a complete gutter also includes transitions to accommodate changes in direction, such as at corners, caps to plug its ends where necessary, and spouts which open into rain leaders. But for the most part, the typical gutter is the sheet metal trough and the reinforcing brackets.
The reinforcing brackets, while being formed from the same metal is the trough, are considerably more rigid, and well they should be, for they tie the front and rear walls together and prevent the latter from deforming outwardly under heavy loads of water or ice. Furthermore, the brackets, being the most rigid part of the gutter, serve as ideal locations for securing the otherwise somewhat filmsy trough to a fascia or gutter board. The end of a typical bracket doubles back on itself to receive the back wall of the trough, and to secure the gutter a nail is driven through this doubled back end as well as through the captured rear wall of the trough and thence into the gutter board. The projecting trough makes wielding a hammer along the back wall of the trough quite difficult, and the nearby horizontal section of the bracket only compounds the problem. Moreover, the lower course of roof shingles often laps downwardly into the gutter itself and obscures the rear wall of the trough and the doubled back portions of the brackets which capture it. When this condition exists, the shingles must be lifted upwardly to drive the nails.
Nail driving tools currently exist which somewhat facilitate the securement of traditional metal gutters. The typical tool consists of nothing more than a tube through which a punch extends, the latter being somewhat longer than the former, so it will project out of one of the ends of the tube. The nail, on the other hand, fits into the opposite end of the tube with its head presented toward the punch. With the nail so fitted, the tube is aligned with the holes in the doubled back portion of the bracket and the punch is struck with a hammer. The punch transfers the impact to the nail which is driven into the gutter board to secure the gutter.
The traditional nail driving tool is difficult to manipulate, particularly from a perch well above the ground on a ladder. The problem resides in aligning the tube with the holes in the doubled back portion of the bracket while at the same time striking the punch with a hammer.